– In January-May there is a tendency for certain items to increase the number of accidents by 5.2% compared to the same period last year. They killed 4,639 people (+3.1%) and injured 56,241 people (+4.9%),” the general said at a press conference dedicated to the launch of the all-Russian “Promoting Security” campaign.

With her help, the authorities want to solve the problem. However, instead of seriously worrying about the state of the country’s vehicle fleet, which is getting older by the day (the average age is about 14 years old) or at least urgent road repairs (more than 50% of regional highways is in a pitiful state), statesmen decided to just talk about the problem. For example, as part of the ‘Safety promotion’ project, not a single new pedestrian crossing has been built, not a single new traffic light has been put into use and not even a meter of track has been repaired.

But “hundreds of information and propaganda events will be held in 40 regions of the Russian Federation. The target groups are motorists, children and teenagers, pedestrians, cadets from driving schools, students from universities and secondary specialized educational institutions.” The federal and regional media are involved in the action, so actively that “the predicted number of contacts of the target audience on television alone will exceed 100 million people. And the predicted online audience reach of the new campaign is over 160 million impressions.”

Cool of course. Especially when you consider that making video and radio spots, writing various articles and attracting “talking heads” will cost tens, if not hundreds of millions (or even billions?) of rubles. Only now, at the broken intersection near the village of Gadyukino, the number of accidents and people affected by this universal “blah-blah-blah” is unlikely to decrease …

And the authorities are well aware of this. How else to explain that the official press release of the aforementioned press conference emphasizes that “one of the objectives of the federal project “Road Safety” is to achieve by 2030 the target of reducing the number of road fatalities to a level of no more than four people per 100 000 inhabitants”. Meanwhile, according to the “Strategy for road safety in the Russian Federation for 2018-2024”, we should have reached this figure already next year …

– In January-May there is a tendency for certain items to increase the number of accidents by 5.2% compared to the same period last year. They killed 4,639 people (+3.1%) and injured 56,241 people (+4.9%),” the general said at a press conference dedicated to the launch of the all-Russian “Promoting Security” campaign.

With her help, the authorities want to solve the problem. However, instead of seriously worrying about the state of the country’s vehicle fleet, which is getting older by the day (the average age is about 14 years old) or at least urgent road repairs (more than 50% of regional highways is in a pitiful state), statesmen decided to just talk about the problem. For example, as part of the ‘Safety promotion’ project, not a single new pedestrian crossing has been built, not a single new traffic light has been put into use and not even a meter of track has been repaired.

But “hundreds of information and propaganda events will be held in 40 regions of the Russian Federation. The target groups are motorists, children and teenagers, pedestrians, cadets from driving schools, students from universities and secondary specialized educational institutions.” The federal and regional media are involved in the action, so actively that “the predicted number of contacts of the target audience on television alone will exceed 100 million people. And the predicted online audience reach of the new campaign is over 160 million impressions.”

Cool of course. Especially when you consider that making video and radio spots, writing various articles and attracting “talking heads” will cost tens, if not hundreds of millions (or even billions?) of rubles. Only now, at the broken intersection near the village of Gadyukino, the number of accidents and people affected by this universal “blah-blah-blah” is unlikely to decrease …

And the authorities are well aware of this. How else to explain that the official press release of the aforementioned press conference emphasizes that “one of the objectives of the federal project “Road Safety” is to achieve by 2030 the target of reducing the number of road fatalities to a level of no more than four people per 100 000 inhabitants”. Meanwhile, according to the “Strategy for road safety in the Russian Federation for 2018-2024”, we should have reached this figure already next year …